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Other sources name the locality el-Audja, 'Uja al-Hafeer, El Auja el Hafir and variations thereof. A‘waj means "bent" in Arabic, and "Al-Auja" is a common name for meandering streams (the Yarkon River in Israel and a smaller stream near Jericho on the West Bank both are called Al-Auja in Arabic). "Hafir" means a water reservoir built to catch runoff water at the base of a slope; in Sudan it can also mean a drainage ditch.

Pottery remains found in the area date back to the 2nd century BC. and are associated with the traces of massive foundations of an unknown building probably of Nabatean construction. The area appears to have remained under the Nabatean sphere of influence, outwith the Hasmonaean and Herodian Kingdoms, until AD 105 when Trajan annexed the Nabataean Kingdom.[6] A large rectangular hill-top fort probably dates from the 4th century AD. A church and associated buildings have been dated as having been built before AD 464.[7] Auja al-Hafir was struck by the great plague which swept the Eastern Mediterranean around AD 541.[8] During the 1930s a large number of papyri, dating from the 6th and 7th century, were found. One of which is from the local Arab governor granting Christian inhabitants freedom of worship on payment of the appropriate tax.[9] After 700 AD the town appears to have lost its settled population, possibly due to changing rainfall patterns.[10]

The Ottoman Empire built a police station in 1902. Before World War I it was the site of a military base.[11] From 1905 to 1915 there were built a railroad and a large administrative centre together with administrators apartment building.[12] In the middle of January, 1915, a Turkish Army force of 20,000 entered Sinai by way of El Auja on an unsuccessful expedition against the Suez Canal.[13] At this time most of the dressed stone was taken from the ancient buildings for building work in Gaza.[10]

According to the 1931 census Auja al-hafir had a population of 29 inhabitants, all Muslims.[14]

The local population were not involved in the disturbances of 1929 and 1936 but there was some disorder in the summer of 1938.[15]

At the start of the 1936 disturbances the British Mandate authorities used Auja as a concentration camp for arrested Palestinian Arab leaders including Awny Abdul Hadi. It was also used to hold Jewish Communists who were being deported. The prisoners were later transferred to the army base at Sarafand.[16] The central route across the desert to the Suez Canal crossed from El Auja to Ismailia, until 1948 this was the only paved road between Palestine and Egypt.[17] During the British Mandate of Palestine it was part of the District of Beersheba.[18] During the British Mandate the location was a prison camp.[19]

^Neff, Donald (1988) Warriors at Suez. Eisenhower takes America into the Middle East in 1956. Amana Books. ISBN0671410105. Page 112. "Control of the 145 square kilometer zone of El Auja, called Nitzana in Hebrew, was imperative for an attack across the sandy wastes of north-central Sinai. The zone centered on an important road junction, with roads leading north to the coast and west to the Suez Canal, the only paved road directly connecting Palestine and Egypt at the time."